The Casio G'zOne Rock on Verizon Wireless appears to be a seriously rugged feature phone, but it's not as rugged as we had wished. It's tough enough to handle a hiking or boating trip, and features six outdoors-centric applications including a pedometer, thermometer, and lunar calendar. The tradeoff, once again, comes in voice quality, making it hard to recommend this phone to anyone other than the outdoor adventure crowd.

Design, Ruggedness, and Call Quality
The G'zOne Rock measures 4.1 by 2 by 0.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.4 ounces. It has a hard, black plastic shell, with a bumpy back panel that can take a bit of damage. The sides of the phone are adorned with a covered headphone jack, a push-to-talk button, volume controls, a launch button for the Gz'Gear outdoors software apps, and a covered charging port. The covered ports prevent dust, water, and other particles from getting in and its construction supposedly prevents extreme wear and tear. The phone has a button on the hinge that conveniently flips it open in one touch. The 2.1-inch, 320-by-240 LCD screen looks vibrant and colorful. The external, 96-by-96 OLED display is in high-contrast black and white for clear outdoor viewing; it conveniently displays time, battery life, and shows a stripped-down version of the phone's compass or pedometer.

We tested the Rock for its ruggedness and were a bit disappointed. The Rock had no problem being submerged in water, or being tossed around. But a hard throw against concrete caused the phone's body to split a bit and one of the port covers to fall out, which would make it non-waterproof. We froze a second unit into a block of ice and shattered the ice with a cinder block, finding that there was ice frozen under the screen, which stopped that phone from working. The Casio G'zOne Boulder, the Rock's predecessor, survived similar throws and freezing without problems.

The Rock is a dual-band EV-DO Rev A (800/1900 MHz) device. The phone's voice quality was good overall. Reception was good and often outperformed similar Verizon feature phones. Calls in quiet areas came through sounding crisp and detailed over the Rock's loud earpiece, but there was too much background noise coming through in loud areas. Also, both the phone's speakerphone and Push-to-Talk calls were disappointingly quiet.

For Bluetooth, the phone seamlessly paired with a Plantronics Voyager Pro mono headset, and calls came through clearly. Battery life was solid at 6 hours and 9 minutes of talk time.

G'zGear Apps, Messaging, and Multimedia
One of the major highlights of the G'zOne Rock is its G'zGear outdoors apps, which you launch by hitting a single button on the phone. These apps include a compass, pedometer, thermometer, tides tracker, a sunrise and sunset clock, and a lunar calendar. Our compass was a bit twitchy, but the other apps offered up good data and functions that a hiker, mountain climber, camper, or surfer could put to good use. I especially liked the pedometer because it can stay on perpetually, so you can always keep track of your walking and how many calories you've burned.

The G'zOne Rock is a pretty good multimedia player for a feature phone, but its 2.5mm headphone jack that doesn't work with most headphones. Music sounded detailed and bright over Altec Lansing Backbeat stereo Bluetooth headphones. The Rock played unprotected MP3, WMA, and AAC files fine. On the video side, the Rock smoothly played MPEG4 and 3GP files at 320-by-240 resolution with ease. Sound was a tad harsh when watching videos, but not so bad as to completely distract you.

Like on many other Verizon feature phones, messaging here is sub-par and often requires extra fees. For instant messaging, the phone supports AIM, Windows Messenger, and Yahoo, but not Google Talk. As usual, Verizon charges for IMs like they are text messages, so we wouldn't advise using it unless you have an unlimited messaging plan. Mobile e-mail costs $5 a month and offers clients for Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, AIM Mail, and Windows Live.

Optional (and typical) Verizon software is also included here: V CAST with Rhapsody, V CAST Videos, and VZ Navigator, which costs $10 a month. V CAST Videos usually played smoothly over 3G, but looked pixelated.

Web browsing is handled by an unfortunately primitive OpenWave WAP browser, which can't handle desktop-class Web sites. This is a pretty terrible browsing experience next to Verizon feature phones like the Samsung Rogue and LG enV Touch VX11000. The phone lets you download a Bing mobile app for free over the air; that app helps open up the experience a bit and works well for quick searches.

Camera and Conclusions
The Rock's 2-megapixel camera shot pretty good photos for its class. Outside photos were a little smudged but text and details were still discernable. Indoor photos with adequate and poor lighting turned out well, with good color and sharpness for both. The camera has a weak LED flash that can be used as a flashlight. The photo-taking noise annoyingly sounds more like a slap in the face than like a shutter.

The Casio G'zOne Rock can take a decent beating and is waterproof, but it wasn't as rugged as its predecessor, the G'zOne Boulder. The Rock, however, does have better call quality and better camera than the Boulder. At $199.99 with a two-year contract, it costs $70 more than the Boulder did a year ago. It really should cost the same, considering the tradeoffs. While the G'zGear apps, camera, and multimedia performance help prop it up, it's hard to recommend this phone unless you're really looking for an outdoorsy adventure phone. Folks looking for an all-around decent, waterproof voice phone for Verizon Wireless should check out the Motorola Barrage, which has better voice quality."

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Sean Ludwig is a Staff Editor for PCMag Mobile. Sean writes about the latest mobile technology and social media. He also edits PCMag.com articles and newsletters. Previously, he has written about technology, business, and entertainment for Fast Company, Seattle Weekly, and the Kansas City Star. Sean graduated with a Bachelor's degree in magazine journalism from the University of Missouri. He enjoys watching films, attending concerts, and writing music.
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